Weronika Stróżyk

Today, I read an article about Simone Biles, an african-american woman who won her 18th and 19th gold medal on the same day at the World Championship in Germany. She became the world's most decorated gymnast with 25 career medals, beating the record of a Belarussian who had won 23 medals in the 1990s. At only 22 years old, she is also the first woman to attempt and land a "triple-twisting, double back maneuver". Even though I'm not a fan of gymnastics, I was very interested in reading more about Simone Biles. She is a very successful woman of colour at such a young age and it was very inspiring for me to learn about.

Today, I watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver again, this time about sex education. He talked about the inconsistent laws in the United States and how very vague they are. He said the laws depend on the state, but in reality sex education can vary from disctrict to district or even from school to school. In some states, they aren't even required to be medically correct. In the end, he showed an educational video he made himself that was probably better than most sex ed classes in schools. abstinence - "Abstinence is a way to avoid pregnancy, but it is not the only one." consent - "If a person doesn't give their consent, it is considered rape." contraception - "Teen pregnancies are a result of inadequate education about contraception."

Today, I watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver again, this time about abortion laws in the United States. His main focus was on the restrictions for abortion clinics, such as the law they they have to meet the same building requirements as hospitals and that their doctors have to have hospital admitting privileges, both of which are not needed for an abortion clinic to function safely. The american government says they restrict these laws to help women's health, but it is not true. stance - "Her stance on this topic was very clear and she wouldn't change her mind." vague - "His friend's description was very vague so he wasn't sure what to do." ultrasound - "The pregnant woman saw her baby for the first time during an ultrasound."

I decided to watch a clip from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about sexual harassment in a workplace. He answered a lot of important questions about this topic and brought up countless cases of accusations, going as far as Anita Hill's case from the nineties. He mentioned the absurd culture of blaming women, brought up men's fears of false accusations and openly disagreed with them, saying you shouldn't be afraid to be alone with a female coworker as long as you don't do anything inapproprate. allegation - "She made allegations of his inappropriate behaviour, but sadly she didn't have any proof." compelled - "The employees were all compelled to attend this meeting sd it was important and the boss wanted everyone there." policy - "The firm's policy didn't allow her to share the information with her friends."

I consider myself a quite supportive person. Whenever my friend does something well, I always congratulate them and I'm happy for them. This doesn't change the fact that whenever my friend does something better than me, for example when they get a better grade on a test, I get jealous. I do not like being worse at something. I have realised that even though many people say jealousy is bad, I do not fully agree. I think jealousy is a natural thing, it is an emotion you often cannot control. It isn't a bad thing, what matters is how you handle it. It's ok to feel jealous as long as you don't act on it. Whenever I get jealous of my friend doing something better than me, I am happy for them despite feeling this way because I know that if it was the other way around, they would do the same for me. As long as you don't let it affect your actions, jealousy isn't harmful to you or the people around you.

I have recently realised some people have a tendency to not to believe people when they say something is wrong. When someone says they are sad, they answer "You shouldn't be sad, a lot of people have it worse than you!" When someone says they don't have enough money, they respond with "There are people living on the street, you shouldn't complain!" In my opinion, even when there are people who have it worse than you, your feelings are still valid. If you really think about it, there is only one person in the world who is the saddest or the poorest. If we kept thinking by the logic of "someone has it worst than you", only one person in the world could be considered sad or poor. This is why it doesn't matter how small your problem is, if it's a big deal to you, you are allowed to feel sad without others making you feel bad for it.